Late Holocene climatic and cultural variability at a focal point of settlement near lamberts bay, South Africa: Test excavations at Soutpansklipheuwel

The Elands Bay and Lamberts Bay areas have received dedicated attention over the last 40 years. Broad chronological patterns have been established and tested by numerous research projects in the last two decades. Nevertheless, this large corpus of data also reveals that despite much research effort, some periods are better understood than others. For instance, only partial information is available for the Mid-Holocene (8700-4800 cal BP), and astonishingly little is known about the centuries between 1300 and 600 cal BP. Both of these periods were dominated by warm and dry atmospheric conditions, and are known as the Holocene Altithermal and the Medieval Warm Epoch, respectively. But luckily, two of three sites at Soutpansklipheuwel (SPKH) outcrop near Lamberts Bay are now known to have substantial volumes of material dating to the latter and elusive period. This paper reports on recent test excavations at all three sites. The results suggest that outcrops and other high-placed locations were targeted for settlement during this period, probably because of competition resulting directly or indirectly from water shortages and xeric conditions. Abundant supply of fuel from a range of woody shrubs and rainwater accumulating in rock pools made SPKH outcrop especially attractive. Shellfish consumption appears to have been of great importance to groups settling at SPKH, with species diversity largely dictated by the biogeographical distribution of taxa in nearby rocky shores. Exotic lithic raw materials were never dominant, but good effort was made to procure them from distant places, thus influencing mobility. Compared to local sites, backed pieces are unusually common at SPKH and a greater variety of formal tools were used and discarded at this locality. The emerging signs of variability seem to suggest that this hitherto little-known period known as the Medieval Warm Epoch was more eventful than previously suspected.